A Kendall teacher and her husband and mom were killed in Sunset Drive crash
A pre-k teacher, her husband and her mother were killed in a crash on Sunset Drive that left one other person hospitalized.
The crash of a Range Rover and a gray Kia happened just before 6 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Sunset Drive and Southwest 92nd Avenue. Surveillance video obtained by Miami Herald news partner CBS4 shows the gray Kia making a turn onto 92nd when it was T-boned by the Range Rover.
The force of the crash ejected the female driver of the Kia, NBC6 reported. She and her two passengers, a woman and a man, were killed in the crash.
One of the people who died was Karina Diaz, who worked at The Creative Learning Center in Kendall. Diaz’s husband and mother also died. Miami-Dade police have yet to publicly identify the victims. However, the school confirmed their deaths in a letter sent to parents and obtained by the Miami Herald.
“We ask you to pray with us, for this family, and pray for our CLRC family as we help each other through this horrific loss of our colleague and sister,” the letter said.
The driver of the Range Rover was taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.
Investigators say the incident began on the Palmetto Expressway, where the driver of the Range Rover, who was going at a “high rate of speed,” passed a South Miami police officer who was on his way to work. When they got off the Palmetto, onto Sunset Drive, the officer tried to pull over the driver, but he took off. and went west The officer stopped following him and made a U-turn to go to work, police said.
A short while later, the Range Rover crashed into the Kia. Diaz and her family were on their way to drop her mother off for dialysis when they were struck, WSVSN reported.
Diaz is survived by her daughter, who also works at the school as an afternoon teacher assistant.
Miami-Dade police on Tuesday said that alcohol was involved and that charges were pending. The police department did not identify the Range Rover driver, who remained hospitalized. The man’s brother told the Herald that driver is Rodney Rodriguez, 24, of Hialeah. He said he does not believe his brother was intoxicated.
“My brother does not drink alcohol,” Luis Rodriguez said in an interview on Wednesday.
Rodney Rodriguez came to the United States from Cuba about seven or eight years ago, worked in construction and wanted to study to become a veterinarian, his brother said. Luis Rodriguez said he last spoke to his brother the night before the crash, and that he had gone to visit a girlfriend.
Rodriguez had only one minor blemish on his record: a misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession in 2019, a case that dropped.
In May 2017, he was cited for driving without a license plate, and speeding. He was granted a withhold of adjudication, which means it did not show up as a conviction. Later that year, he was also convicted of careless driving after crashing in Hialeah.
His license was suspended for several months that year after failing to pay fines associated with the tickets, records show.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 8:53 AM.
